Rail-brake for railway-cars.



G) E. MANN.

RAIL BRAKE FOR RAILWAY CABS.

APPLICATION FILED mm. 21. I911.

1,279,568. 7 PatentedSept. 24,1918.

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ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GRANT E. MANN, OF LANGFORD, SOUTH DAKOTA.

RAIL-BRAKE FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Application filed March 21, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GRANT E. MANN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lang-ford, in. the county of Marshall. and State of South Dakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail- Brakes for Railway-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in railway car brakes, and more particularly to rail brakes.

The object of the invention is to construct an auxiliary safety brake for use in conned tion with the usual wheel brakes and which is intended to friotionally engage the rails of the track and thereby exert a drag ,on the car and by means of which. the car may be quickly stopped without danger of sliding the wheels and flattening the treads thereof.

Another object is'to provide a brake of this character which may be readily applied to cars already in use without any change being made therein and which is automatically applied by the application of the air brake rod.

Another object is to provide a brake of this character in which the braking force maybe varied to meet the requirements of the car.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, which will appear as the description roceeds, the invention resides in the comination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed may be made within the scope of What claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention.

11 the accompanying drawings: Fi ire 1 represents a side elevation of a freight car equipped with the improved brakes constituting this invention,

2 is anenlarged detail side elevation showing one of the brakes in raised inoperativ'e position,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged horizontal section taken'on; the line 33 of Fig. 2,

.Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail vertical Longitiklldina-l section. through one of the brake s. e

,Fig fiis an enlarged 'detailtransverse section taken on the line 5-5 of 3, and

ig. his a similar view taken on 'theline (w- 6 of Fig. 4:.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 24, 1918.

Serial No. 156,424..

In the embodiment illustrated, four brakes ei'nbodying this invention are employed, although obviously the number may be varied if found desirable. These brakes, which are preferably arranged in pairs close to the wheels of the car are exactly alike in construction and hence one pair only will be described in detail.

Each pair f brakes, as shown clearly in Figs. 2, 3 and 4-, comprises two shoes 1 and 2, constructed in the form shown in Figs. 2 and 1, each shoe having a flat rail oilgaging face 3 preferably about two feet in length so that the braking surface of the four brakes employed will be about eight feet for each car but of course the sizes of these shoes may be varied as desired.

Each brake shoe has an upstanding boss 4- bifurcated to receive a connecting armfi, the lower end of said. arm bein arranged between the furcations 6 of said boss and pi'votally connected therewith by a bolt 7, as is shown clearly in Figs. 2 and 1. The opposite ends of each shoe have their lower faces inclined upwardly and bifurcated as, shown at 8 and these ends receive support ing braces 9 and 9, the lower ends of which are slotted transversely as shown at 10, and arranged between the fin-cations 8 of the shoes as is shown clearly in Fig. 4, the slots 10 in said braces 9 and 9 receiving pivot pins 11 and permitting the shoes to move vertically toward and away from the rail R.

A crank shaft 12 connects the two shoes 1 and 2 at opposite sides of the track, the arms 13 thereof being pivotally connected at their free ends with the upper ends of arms 5. A lever 14: is fixed atone end to the cross bar of the crank shaft 12 at a point midway the length thereof, being secured thereto by any suitable or desired means or made integral therewith, as desired. This lever 14 has its upper end bifurcated to straddle an air brake rod 15 and is held in engagement therewith by a bolt 16 passing through the free ends of the furcations of said lever above the rod as is-shown clearly in Fig. 2. This lever 14 engages said rod between two clamps 17 and .18 which are adjustably mounted on thebrake rod and spaced apart a suitable distanceto provide for a predetermined movement of the brake rod before its actuating engage ment with glever lifor raising or lowering the brake shoes. These clamps 17 and 18 are preferably made in the form of split sleeves as shown in Fig. 5 and are secured in adjusted position by means of set screws 19. The collars 17 and 18 between which lever 14 is disposed are spaced apart so as to permit the brake rod 15 to move independently a predetermined distance be fore it comes into engagement with lever 14 and actuates said lever. The object in so spacing these collars, is that when brake rod 15 is moved the distance of the space between them, it applies the wheel brake, which is used for ordinary stops. If it is desired to stop in a very short space the brake is applied harder and this causes the lever rod 15 to move and come in contact with lever 14 and apply the rail brakes. By so doing, both the rail and wheel brakes are applied. These collars 17 and 18 must be set so as to prevent the wheels from sliding on the rails which would result in flattening of the peripheries thereof and yet the wheel must hold as much as possible without sliding. This provides a greater brakin action. Should these collars 17 and 18 not be spaced, the train while traveling slowly as when coming into a station may be brought to a standstill almost instantly and this would result in great wear on the rail brake.

Supporting braces 20 depend from the bottom of the car C and as shown in Fig. 2 are arranged obliquely having bearings 21 at their free ends in which the cross bar of the crank shaft 12 is loosely mounted and is adapted to turn.

The rear braces 9 which support the shoes 1 and 2 are offsetlaterally inward as shown at 22 in Figs. 2 and 3 to properly position them in relation to the wheels W of the car so that they will not interfere with the operation thereof.

In the operation of this improved rail brake, the parts being in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, when brake rod 15 has been moved longitudinally in the direction of the arrow, shown in Fig. 2, a distance sufficient to bring clamp 18 into engagement with the lever 14, it will move said lever rearwardly thereby turning the crank shaft 12 and cansing the arms 13 thereof to swing downwardly and through arms or links 5 which connect said crank arms with the shoes to force the shoes 1 and 2 downward into frictional engagement with the rails R at opposite sides of the track. This operation of the rail brakes may occur simultaneously with the application of the wheel brakes according to the adjustment of collars 17 and 18 so that it will not be necessary to exert a full braking pressure on the wheel brakes and thereby prevent said wheels from sliding on the rails which frequently results in the flattening of the treads of the wheels. As hereinbefore described the collars 17 and 18 are preferably spaced apart as shown, to permit the brake rod 15 to move a predetermined distance after applying the wheel brakes before the track brakes are brought into operation.

When the full pressure is applied through means of the brake rods 15, greater force will be exerted on the rail brakes but at the same time the wheel brakes will operate to assist in stopping the car. It is obvious that by the use of these improved rail brakes, four of which are employed on each car, that the train can be brought to a standstill at least four times quicker than can be done without their use and without in any way damaging the car wheels. The use of these rail brakes also prevents all possibility of the wheel brakes sticking, since it is not necessary to apply said brakes with such force as to cause them to stick.

If the braking force exerted by the rail brakes is not suflicient it may be increased by lengthening lever 14 and shortening the crank arms 13, which will produce a greater leverage and consequently exert greater pressure of the rail shoes on the rails.

From the above description it will be obvious that these improved brakes may be applied quickly and readily to any car already in use having the rail brake rod 15, b simply applying to said rod the clamps 1 and 18, mounting between them the lever 14 and by connecting to the bottom of the car the supporting braces 9 and 9 and 20, all of which may be done without in any way mutilating or injuring the car or necessitating any skilled labor being used.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the advantages of the construction and of the method of operation will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains and while I have described the principle of operation of the invention together with the device which I now consider to be the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that the device shown is merely illustrative and that such changes may be made as are within the scope of the claimed invention.

I claim 1. The combination with a car having a longitudinally movable brake rod; of a rail engaging shoe, actuating means for said shoecarried by said rod, and means on said rod to provide for a predetermined movement of the rod before it actuates said shoe.

2. The combination with a car having a longitudinally movable brake rod; of a rail engaging shoe, actuating means for said shoe carried by said rod, and adjustable means on 'said rod to provide for a predetermined nfiovement of the rod before it actuates said 5 0e.

3. The combination with a car having a longitudinally movable brake rod; of a pair of laterally spaced rail engaging shoes having upwardly inclined ends, braces depending from said ear and having slotted connec- 10 links pivotally connecting said arms and shoes, and a lever fixed to said rod and shaft.

4:. The combination with a car having a longitudinally movable brake rod; of a air of laterally spaced rail engaging shoes,

15 braces depending from said car and having slotted connection with the ends of said shoes, other braces depending from the car, a shaft rotatably mounted in said last mentioned braces and extending transversely of the car, arms extending at right angles from said shaft, links pivotally connecting said arms and shoes, and a lever fixed to said rod and shaft.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GRANT E. MANN.

Witnesses:

J. R. HARDING, O. T. HARDING.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. 0. 

